Early childhood predictors of black children's achievement: Home, early care and education, and neighborhood contexts

Abstract

The present study used an integrative theoretical model and a strengths-based conceptual framing to guide longitudinal analyses of how three early childhood contexts—home, early care and education (ECE), and neighborhood—were related to Black children's (n = 138) achievement from early childhood (54 months) through adolescence (15 years). We find that high-quality early childhood home environments were robustly predictive of high verbal and mathematics achievement through adolescence. For ECE, however, we found no significant associations, with few Black children experiencing sustained time in high-quality care. For neighborhoods, we found that Black children's achievement was highest in the least affluent neighborhoods and in racially-integrated neighborhoods with a moderate concentration of Black families. Implications for further study of Black children's developmental strengths are discussed.